Musicians

Every christian musician should at least have a basic understanding of theology. Ultimatley what we are doing is singing our faith. While the appeal of music can provoke emotions and response ultimatley what we are saying in our songs is more important than the melody. As musicians our desire should be to live and articulate a holistic understanding of what Biblical worship looks like. Worship is both a corporate and individual response of the created to the Creator. We worship because God has created us, Christ has redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit sustains us.

Corporate:

As a community and as the body of Christ we gather for Sunday services. We also worship corporately in Small Groups, Student Ministries, Children’s Ministries, Missional groups and more.

Individual:

As individuals we desire to glorify God in all aspects of our lives. We devote our lives as living sacrifices daily dieing to ourselves so we might live for Christ’s glory. Worship thus permeates every aspect of our lives.

-We are created in the image and likeness of God the Trinity. We are image bearers of God and reflections of Gods glory. Worship is the proper response of the created to the Creator. Everyone worships something or someone. Everyone is a worshipper, the question is not “if” we worship, but “who or what” do we worship.

(Genesis 1:26-27)

-As a result of the fall our natural tendency is to sin committing idolatry. In doing so we trade the truth for a lie and worship creation rather than the Creator who alone is worshy of our praise.

(Romans 1:25)

-God is to be glorified above all other things. Our role as worshippers is to glorify God by devoting and sacrificing our lives for the glory of God. Worship is a lifestyle choice that is unceasing. We worship both as individuals and as a corporate community as the body of Christ.

(Romans 11:36-12:1)

-Jesus Christ is our one and only mediator to the Father. We worship God the father empowered by the Holy Spirit through Christ who is our mediator.

(1 Peter 2:9) (Colossians 3:12-17)

Summary:

Worship is the response of creation as an image bearer of God, through Christ our mediator, to the revelation of God. It involves; corporate gatherings, a missional focus, a relationship with God, and our individual lifestyles that are dedicated and sacrificed to God.

A faithful worshiper (Responding to God)

Magnifies the greatness of God (Image bearer giving glory)

In Jesus Christ (Mediator)

Through the power of the Holy Spirit

Thereby motivating the gathered church (Corporate)

To proclaim the gospel (Missional)

To cherish God's presence (Relational)

And to live for God's glory. (Individual Lifestyle, Dedication and Sacrifice)

THEOLOGY OF WORSHIP

What does that look like?

SCRIPTURE

Being a Pastoral Musician

Being a Pastoral Musician involves many different things. It means that you have a heart after God and His unfolding story of redemption and reconciliation for the world. It means you have a heart for Gods people and a longing to see them worship God through the medium of song. It means that you are in a role of leadership on stage and held to a higher accountabilty. It means you help set the tone of worship as you lead people in song. Here are 10 traits that help define what it means to be a Pastoral Musician. (Adapted from Worship Leader Magazine article by Constance Cherry)

1. Have a solid understanding of biblical worship.

Having a strong Biblical foundation is key for a Pastoral Musician. Why? Because we are singing our theology together. We are telling Gods story through song, so it is important to have a basic understanding of the tenants of our faith. Its important for you to know and be able to talk about some of the major theological topics that we sing able like, Creation, Depravity, Gods Attributes, Salvation, Redemption, A Faithfull Response etc.

2. Embrace the dialogical nature of worship as revelation and response.

God has revealed himself to us through creation, through the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of Christ, through His unfolding story of salvation through Christ's life death and ressurection, through the faithfullness of the church. As Pastoral Musicians we teach the revelation of God as well as an appropriate response to Gods revelation.

3. Recognize that biblical worship is both vertical and horizontal in nature.

Worship has a vertical element in that we are worshipping the creator of the universe. Our worship should always be pointed and aimed toward God. Our worship should also have a horizontal element in that its something the church, the bride of Christ does together in response. Horizontal worship involves the element of worship that says "what is our response in light of Gods revelation". Together we sing how we will live as a community, we proclaim that our entire lives will be a living sacrafice in response to the mercy of God.

4. Understand biblical worship to be primarily corporate in nature.

As Pastoral Musicians we must always be reminded that the body of Christ is a corperate thing. The church is the collective sum of the individual parts. So while you can worship alone worship is primarily the response of the entire church the bride of Christ.

5. Embrace, encourage and love the persons in the community God has given them to oversee.

A Pastoral Musician is a shepherd to flock. Our job both on and of the stage is to embrace everyone with open arms, to encourae them and spur them on to Christ and to love them as God first loved us. This happens by leadership off the stage as we build relationships with our people. Nobody wants to follow someone they do not trust in. Trust is build through relationship over time through the faithfullness of genuine relationship.

6. Understand that worship always forms us, explicitly and implicitly.

We are always being shaped and formed by the things around us. The goal is for us to be shaped and molded into the image of Christ. The way we worship shapes us and the people around us in many ways. We develps habits, like and dislikes, a dialext and way of communicating and a culture or way of life through worship. A Pastoral Musician understands this and is tuned in to the imporance of formation.

7. View the core content of worship to be the story of God, what the triune God is doing from creation to re-creation.

The words that we sing and teach should reflect the story that God is telling through the Bible. We sing and teach about God the father who has an unfailing relentless love for us, about Christ who lived a life that we could not and died a death that we deserve to offer us grace and forgiveness on the cross, and about the Holy Spiirt who now lives and dwells within us.

8. See worship as a bigger entity than exclusively music

Worship encompasses everything that we are and do. Pastoral Musicians have a healthy undertsanding that music is just one avenue or medium that we use to worship God. In doing so we recognize that the words worship and music are not synonimus but that worship is the bigger umbrella and that music falls under it as a way in which we do it.

9. View music as a servant to the text.

"Truth before Tunes" is how one worship leader put it. Music is a powerful tool that can be used in great ways to express emotion. We must be careful as Pastoral Musicians that the main point of leading people in music is the words that we are singing. The music should always serve the words then and be used as a powerful vehicle to portrait them with power.

10. Understand excellence is a journey not an end.

As leaders we should pursue excellence in everything that we do. We must recognize and embrace that we will never be perfect and have a calling to be life long learners. God is always trying to teach us something new about him. Leading people in the pursuit of holiness then means that the journey of transformation is our goal.